Switch circuit controller operating rod connection



.July 12, 1955 F. c. LAVARACK ET AL 2,712,914

SWITCH CIRCUIT CONTROLLER OPERATING ROD CONNECTION Filed July 27, 1951 ATTORNEY.

United fitates Patent SWETQH CERCUFT CSNTRELLER ijPERATiNG ROE) CGNNEQTEUN Frederick C. Lavarack, RZontciair, N. 5., and Frank i. iiussey, .l'ru, Rivertlaie, N. Y., assignors to Railroad Accessories Corporation, New York, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application July 27, 1951, Serial No. 23$,S85

1 Claim. (Cl. 246452) This invention relates to signalling, especially railway signalling, and more particularly to railway electric signailing.

A principal object of this invention is to improve the construction of the switch point connection, and particularly the switch point operated circuit controller operating rod, as shown in United States patents to Lundy Nos. 2,609,269 and 2,046,568 granted respectively July 23, 1935, and July 7, 1936.

Experience with the device, in practice, as shown in the two above mentioned patents, resulted in discovering that breaks frequently occurred in the operating rod either in the thread or substantially at the termination at the inside end of the thread serving to connect the operating rod with the bracket depending from the switch point.

It is well known to those familiar with this art that the several parts of e device, made in accordance with the W0 above mentioned patents, when installed in place, are subjected to very severe shaking and jarring. This shaking and jarring seems to have its effects concentrated at substantially the juncture of the thread of the operating rod and the end of the bracket to which it is attached.

A principal object of this invention is to provide a construction of switch point circuit controlled operating rod and switch point bracket such that the undesired breakages will either occur after a much longer time or not at all.

Other objects and advantages will appear as the description of the particular physical embodiment selected to illustrate the invention progresses and the novel features will be particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

in describing the invention in detail and the particular physical embodiment selected to illustrate the invention, reference will be had to the accompanying drawings and the several views thereon, in which like characters of reference designate like parts throughout the several views, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a fragmentary top plan view of a railway switch, its supporting tie, its switch circuit controller and connecting means between the circuit controller and track switch constructed in accordance with our invention; Fig. 2 is a fragmentary side elevational view of the device as shown by Fig. 1, the main track rail being shown in section; Fig. 3 is a view in longitudinal section of the device as shown in Fig. 2 on the plane indicated by the line III-iii, viewed in the direction of the arrows at the ends of the line; Fig. 4 is a horizontal sectional view of the device as shown by Fig. 2 on the plane indicated by the line iV-IV, viewed in the direction of the arrows at the ends of the line; Fig. 5 is a fragmentary detailed view in side elevation, partly in section, on a larger scale, of a switch point connecting bracket or lug used in our invention; Fig. 6 is a fragmentary cross sectional view of the device as shown by Fig. 5 on the plane indicated by the line VI-Vl, viewed in the direction of the arrows at the ends of the line.

1 designates a railway tie. The rail 2 and the switch point 3 are supported by the tie 1 although when the is spring-pressed by spring 15 against 2,712,914 Patented July 12, 1955 switch point 3 is closed against the rail 2 it is supported by the lower flange 4 of the rail.

As is well known to those skilled in the railway signalling art, if the switch point 3 is what is known as a facing point switch, that is, faces in a direction from which traffic approaches and especially is situated on a main or high speed line, it is extremely necessary that the very slightest movement of the switch point 3 from the rail 2 shall be indicated by a danger position of the signal governing the railway traffic over the switch point. In fact the extreme movement of switch point 3 from the stock rail 2 is only allowed to be about 1 of an inch before a danger indication should be exhibited.

In order to enable switch point 3 to indicate its fully open position or a slight dangerous opening from stock rail 2, it is connected to the usual circuit controller or switch box 5 so that the circuit controller devices in switch box 5 will be operated by any undesired slight movement of switch point 3 and by a desired full movement of switch point 3.

In order to secure the proper connection between switch point 3 and switch box 5, a lug 6 or comparable device is attached to the switch point 3 in any suitable or appropriate manner as by bolts 7. A bracket or lug 8 is attached to lug 6 and depends downward so that its end is somewhat below the base of the rail 2, and an operating rod 9 is connected to a crank arm 10 of the switch box. By such a connecting means a movement of switch point 3 is communicated to the circuit controller contact points in box 5.

As the tie 1 is bedded on the earth, and as heavy railway equipment passes over the rail 2, often at very high speed, and as all of the parts are positioned close to the ground and exposed to the weather, it is extremely difiicult to keep all of the parts in perfect alignment, so the lug 6 is made round and the bracket or lug 8 surrounds it and is held thereto by arcuate members 11 and 12 springpressed by spring 13 into contact with the lug 6 so that lug 8 may move slightly longitudinally of lug 6 so as to take care of any mis-alignment which occurs by reason of a break, creeping or heaving.

In a somewhat similar way the crank 10 is connected. The crank has a ball end 16 bearing on the arcuate surface 26 of the member 17 and the arcuate member 27 the ball.

Between the member 37 and the lug or bracket 8 is the operating rod 9. This is attached to member 17 in any suitable or appropriate manner as by internal and external screw threads at 18 supplemented by a lock nut 19.

The operating rod 9 at the ends adjacent the bracket 8, as best shown in Fig. 5, is formed with a screw thread 20 on its extreme right hand end, as viewed in Figs. 5 and 2. Beginning at the inner termination of the screw thread the operating rod 9 is formed for a short distance as the frustrum of a cone 21. The smaller diameter of this frustrum is substantially the external diameter of the thread 20 and the larger diameter is at about 22 somewhat outside of the bracket as shown in Fig. 5.

The bracket 8 is also formed with a through tapered bore 23 matching the taper of the operating rod 9. When installing the device, the operating rod 9 is pushed through the tapered through bore 23 of the bracket 8 into a very close fitting engagement between the taper on the operating rod 9 and the inside tapered surface of the bracket 8 and is held firmly in this close contacting position by means of a nut 24 screwed on to the thread 20. The nut 24 may be well prevented from backing 01f by any suitable or appropriate means, preferably by means of a pin 25 passing through the nut and through the operating rod 9.

Heretofore a thread corresponding to thread 20 has been carried straight through the bore in the bracket 8 and the nut has been screwed onto its thread as far as it would go and then the threaded end passed through the bracket 8 and another nut placed on the outer end of the thread to hold the operating rod securely to the bracket 8. In practice it has been found that this prior construction often broke in the thread just outside of the left-hand side of the bracket as viewed in Fig. 5, or just outside of the nut on that side of the bracket. It appears that the shaking and jarring to which the operating rod is subjected has the force concentrated at that point.

In applicants construction practically the full cross section of the operating rod 9 bears the shock of any forces operating to jar and shake the bracket 8 and so prevents the breaking of the operating rod 1 adjacent the bracket 8 In fact comparative tests, made on a jarring machine, of the old form of connection of the operating rod to the bracket 8 and our present form, showed that the old form broke in six hours but that the new form had not broken after one hundred and twenty hours, demonstrating conclusively that the new form of construction is far superior to the old.

Although we have particularly described one particular physical embodiment of invention and explained the construction and principle thereof, nevertheless, we desire to have it understood that the form selected is merely illustrative, but does not exhaust the possible physical embodiments of the idea of means underlying our invention.

What we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A railway switch point operated circuit controller switch point connection, including, in combination, a bracket depending from a switch point, said bracket formed with a through bore tapered throughout, an operating rod, said operating rod adjacent one end formed as the frustrum' of a cone to snugly fit the taper in the bracket and extend completely therethrough, means to hold the operating rod in place in the bracket and means at the end opposite that formed as a frustrurn to connect the operating rod with a circuit controller.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,405,548 Neubert Feb. 7, 1922 1,990,898 Forrnan Feb. 12, 1935 2,167,174 Flumerfelt July 25, 1939 2,208,449 Bone July 16, 1940 

